An Overview of Greek Holidays
Despite having a reputation for being a country where decadence thrives, the residents in Greece are rather religious. When they celebrate their holidays, they don’t just celebrate the common, traditional holidays like New Year’s Day, Christmas, and Easter. This primarily Greek Orthodox country also celebrates Feast Days for saints and Name Days.
The national holidays fall on January 1 (New Year’s Day), January 6 (Epiphany), March 25 (Independence Day), May 1 (Labour Day), August 15 (Assumption), October 28 (Ochi Day), December 25 (Christmas), and December 26 (Boxing Day). Easter Sunday is celebrated on a different day every year just like it does with the Catholic and Protestant versions.
On New Year’s Day, gambling is allowed as it is considered lucky to do on this day. It’s can also be celebrated by emptying a vessel of water and refilling it. A cake (vassilopita) with a small coin hidden inside is eaten. Whoever gets the coin can expect good luck for the rest of the year. It is also the Name Day for Vassilis (Basil).
Epiphany marks the end of the “twelve days of Christmas.” A special ceremony is performed that blesses the waters and all the vessels that sail them. In Piraeus, the ancient port of Athens, a priest throws a large crucifix into the water and men swim in the cold water to retrieve it. For safety’s sake, a long chain is attached to the cross.
On Independence Day, there will be lots of parades and celebrations of the secular and religious kinds. This day marks the time in 1821 when Greece stood up against the Ottoman Empire which had occupied the country for nearly four hundred years. Visitors who are here for Independence Day will have to decide which celebrations to attend as March 25 also is the day for the Feast of the Annunciation.
Easter is actually the biggest day celebrated in Greece. There is a festival that begins on the evening of Good Friday and ends on Easter Sunday. There is a procession where a shrouded bier is carried through candle-lit streets. Churches are packed during Resurrection Mass on Saturday night. And people crack open red-dyed Easter eggs on Sunday to represent the blood of Christ and new life.
Labour Day in Greece is much like Labor Day in the United States. It is a public bank holiday where folks leave town to enjoy the countryside with picnics and wreath making from the wildflowers collected. It’s just simply a time to rest.
August 15 celebrates the day of the Assumption of the Virgin (Kimisis tis Theotokou). During this time, people are traveling to be closer to their families. On the island of Tinos, thousands of people travel there to be blessed, healed, or baptized.
Ochi Day is known as No! Day. It’s the day when Greece, during World War II, told the Italian troops via telegram that they will not allow them to occupy their country. There are parades, and museums and monuments allow free admissions on this day. This may change in 2012 as the country questions its financial stability.
Once, Christmas wasn’t such a big religious holiday in Greece but now it has become the traditional, Westernized Christmas much of the world knows. Trees are erected and decorated, and turkeys are even cooked for the day’s feast.
Boxing Day here is not like the Boxing Day celebrated in the United Kingdom. It’s more of a religious holiday that glorifies the Theotokos, the mother of Jesus.
